Photofeedback

2005

4 robots of the same type but programmed differently according to the automatisms and figures of dance move about on an action space covered with photographic paper. Their movements are initiated by the beat of a metronome and controlled by acoustic signals.

Each robot has 2 LEDs which continually expose the paper: visible traces as notations of their mechanical dance.

Martin Hesselmeier’s Photofeedback was not explicitly shown in relation to art history, but its motives are so avant-garde it could have been made in 1928, if only they had the right technology. His toad-like robots move around automatically in a dark space, shining lights on the photographic paper beneath them and marking it with their mechanical movements. Like Moholy-Nagy’s photograms, the resulting print is only minimally controlled and the result is abstract, mystical and cool. What does it mean, in this new art free of art history, not to acknowledge or perhaps not even to be aware of such precedents? If it allows for freedom, and uncriticized exploration, perhaps it is not all bad.